Junko is a quiet and good-natured young lady born with a secret power unlike anything you have ever seen. Pyrokinesis, a deadly form of ESP, enables her to incinerate anything on command. Her simple, uneventful life is disrupted and she is pushed past her boiling point when a group of murdering teenage thugs kills a close friend. Now no one is safe from the fires of vengeance!Sakurai (Inagaki Goro) is a section chief in an insurance company who is well-known for his tremendous ability to suck up to his bosses, sometimes to the embarrassment of his girlfriend and OL co-worker Naomi (Yada Akiko). Just when Sakurai thought he could be promoted to department chief, the company gets into trouble and is bought over, Sakurai's boss Tokugawa is sacked, and a high-flying, no-nonsense female executive Ogata (Asano Yuko) takes over. Sakurai's habits are initially embarrassing and irritating ! to her, but his value soon emerges as he manages to retain old customers, stop his outstanding co-worker Shiraishi (Ichikawa Somegoro) and others from leaving, and smoothen the transition for everyone.An entertaining collection of stories reminiscent of the classic Twilight Zone television show, Tales of the Unusual: Eiga no Tokubetsu-hen begins with a group of stranded commuters trapped together by a sudden rainstorm. To pass the time, one of the young men begins to tell a story, but he's hijacked by a mysterious old man, who begins to tell four very different stories of the strange and unusual. In story one, a stranded group of explorers suffers guilt over the inadvertent death of one of their own. They take shelter in a small cabin, but they sense they are not alone. In story two, an ancient Japanese soldier finds his destiny altered by a bizarre cell phone call from the future - which happens to be from a concerned historian! In story three, an embittered chess master is hired by a millionaire to play a real life game that supposedly will decide the fate of scores of people. And in story four, an engaged couple visits a marriage bureau and receives a virtual reality simulation of their future matrimony. Will the preview be enough to get them to call it off? Featuring numerous familiar Japanese actors, and crossing various genres from comedy to drama to horror, Tales of the Unusual: Eiga no Tokubetsu-hen is an engaging and enjoyable anthology for those who enjoy any and all forms of Japanese cinema.
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